Singapore Changi Airport last month handled its highest number of passengers for the month of March.

The airport handled 4.28 million passengers, up 15.9 per cent year-on-year, bringing the total number of passengers handled in the first three months of this year to 12.3 million.

This is an increase of 12.9 per cent compared to the same period last year.

Traffic growth was underpinned by strong travel demand to and from Europe, the Middle East, South Asia, North-east Asia and South-east Asia, regions which saw double-digit growth, said Changi Airport Group (CAG) in a statement yesterday.

It added that the increase was in tandem with a rise in aircraft movements, which grew 10.6 per cent to 27,000.

Airfreight movements, however, fell 1.8 per cent to 163,000 tonnes last month.

Changi Airport handled 79,500 aircraft movements from January to March this year, up 12.9 per cent year-on-year.

The CAG said 443,900 tonnes of cargo passed through Changi in the first quarter of this year, an increase of 0.6 per cent compared to the previous year.